In February of 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns set aside work on his Third Symphony to write The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns considered it an act of compositional frivolity for a purely private audience. He prohibited public performances of the work during his lifetime out of fear that it would damage his reputation as a serious composer.
The Carnival of the Animals is full of parodies and inside jokes. A quote of Offenbach’s famous Galop infernal is slowed to a crawl to accompany the slow and steady progress of the tortoise. The cumbersome elephant’s attempts at grace include a reference to Mendelssohn’s light and effervescent Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Beyond this playfulness is magical and spirited music that deserves respect and the full listening attention of children and adults alike. Despite the composer’s best efforts, The Carnival of the Animals is as famous (perhaps even more famous) than the magnificent “Organ” Symphony No. 3. I always hear some of its boisterous zaniness in the wild ascending scales which conclude the Symphony.
We explored this music in a previous post. Let’s return to it with a spectacular performance featuring the Kanneh-Masons and Friends. They are a highly talented English family made up of seven brothers and sisters, all of whom play either violin, piano, or cello. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason rose to international acclaim after performing at the 2018 royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
This BBC Proms performance was recorded in 2021. The narrators/actors are EM Williams and Michael Morpurgo.
Featured Image: The Kanneh-Masons, photograph by Stuart McIntyre